Simple heuristics for the assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem

  • Authors:

  • Mayron César Moreira;Marcus Ritt;Alysson M. Costa;Antonio A. Chaves

  • Affiliations:

  • Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação, Universidade de São Paulo, São Carlos, Brazil CEP: 13560-970;Instituto de Informática, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil;Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação, Universidade de São Paulo, São Carlos, Brazil CEP: 13560-970;Faculdade de Eng. de Guaratinguetá, Universidade Estadual Paulista J. de Mesquita Filho, São Paulo, Brazil

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Heuristics
  • Year:
  • 2012

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

We propose simple heuristics for the assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem. This problem typically occurs in assembly lines in sheltered work centers for the disabled. Different from the well-known simple assembly line balancing problem, the task execution times vary according to the assigned worker. We develop a constructive heuristic framework based on task and worker priority rules defining the order in which the tasks and workers should be assigned to the workstations. We present a number of such rules and compare their performance across three possible uses: as a stand-alone method, as an initial solution generator for meta-heuristics, and as a decoder for a hybrid genetic algorithm. Our results show that the heuristics are fast, they obtain good results as a stand-alone method and are efficient when used as a initial solution generator or as a solution decoder within more elaborate approaches.